Lifting the Sky
by dev1ce
Summary: He had made a promise to himself to never be so stupid again to fall in love. But as Nico and Percy become closer, Nico finds that the complete opposite has happened: he's fallen deeper. Like Nico the sky is also falling. Can the heroes save the world again? Can Nico figure out his feelings? Read to find out.
1. Chapter 1

A thin streak of moonlight shone into the cabin, stark white against the overpowering darkness of the room. The wooden walls were painted pure black, the rich carvings giving it the feel of a room in an ancient mansion. Elaborately decorated black furniture added to the feel of fanciness. A queen-sized bed sat proudly next to a black nightstand. A fireplace made with black iron burned a ghostly green, the only source of light in the cabin. The moonlight came in from the black doors that stood ajar, the new light casting strange dark shapes all over the walls and furniture. Even though the cabin seemed haunted with its dark and ancient looks, not a single soul was in that cabin. Dust clung to the furniture, a musky and earthy smell inhabited the place. The door creaked and groaned, the wind inching it forward and backward.

The darkest corner of the cabin rippled as a figure stepped out of the shadows. The teen sagged with exhaustion, eyes drooping from fatigue. He stumbled towards the bed and sank his head into the earthy-smelling pillows. Not bothering to kick off his grimy shoes, the guy closed his eyes and fell into a deep sleep.

Sometimes the nightmares constantly rattling him were unbearable. You would think some were as simple as him forgetting to do his homework or being late for class, right? Not. Every dream the guy had been always ten times worse than that. The least terrifying nightmare he'd ever had was the zombie apocalypse happening and watching his family be eaten. By far. The most terrifying he didn't even want to even think about. Why? Because it actually happened.

That's the worst part about his nightmares. Being a demi-god sometimes mean that the nightmares you're having aren't just something your conscience is making up. It sometimes means it is either happening now or later, for demi-god consciences like to keep things real.

So, sure enough, his subconscious brought him into... have you guessed it yet ...you guessed it: Tartarus.

He was in the very heart, which of course, was the worst part of the place. But his subconscious clearly thought that the poor teen wasn't scared enough, so it threw in the doors of death being chained there. Again. When the doors of death were chained, Tartarus controlled what monsters went in and out of his domain, and where they are dropped off.

Since he was naturally evil, Tartarus didn't exactly use the doors for anything good. More like the opposite: for really really bad stuff.

'This is not going to be a good dream,' the teen thought to himself. Preparing for the worst, he looked around.

He wasn't very thankful for being right that this dream wasn't going be a good one. When an evil, creepy laugh echoed through the gloom, the guy wanted to scream with frustration.

"Did you really think you could evade me, Nico?"

"Nope," Nico replied, putting all his annoyance into that answer. A warning bell went off in his head, for he knew that that was not a smart thing to say. But he wanted to make it clear that he was not happy with this dream, for he was exhausted and tired.

The ground shook beneath the teen's feet, lava pouring from the cracks. The tired teen could feel the heat of the voice's anger, rolling off him in waves. "Don't make me angry, son of Hades, I will kill you."

Even though he was scared to Hades and back, Nico was not in a good mood, which made him roll his eyes. "I'm not afraid of death."

The evil, cold voice chuckled. "No, no you're not."

Then the source of the voice appeared in front of the son of Hades, making goosebumps rise from his arms: Tartarus himself.

The void that Tartarus has for his head was brought back memories Nico had tried so hard to forget. His robe was similar to Pluto's, a robe filled with wailing souls. But these weren't humans. They were Tartarus' monsters.

What the god of the pit said next made the poor guy's heart race.

"But you are afraid for him."

Panic flared through him, making him want to slay the pit right there for using his biggest weakness against him. But he stood there, trying not to do anything stupid. "I don't know what you're talking about." he retorted.

"Oh, but you do." the god said, his tone so scary that anyone lesser than the teen would be crying for his mama. "You know exactly who I'm talking about." Not waiting for the son of Hades to reply, Tartarus continued. "The hero of Olympus that everyone adores, who's so selfless and sacrifices himself constantly for the good of everyone else. Your hero." Cruelty shone in Tartarus's voice as he watched the teen wince at every word he said.

"What do you want from me?" the demigod asked, using a death glare that usually had campers backing away.

"I know what you desire, Nico di Angelo. I know you want to be with the son of Poseidon." Tartarus said, enjoying Nico's painful expression at his words. "I can give you that. All you need to do is help me."

Nico grimaced, a little tempted by his words. But when he thought of Percy's expression if he had helped Tartarus in order to have him, Nico knew that it wouldn't work. "Never," he hissed at the god, glaring at him.

"Very well," Tartarus said. "You should've taken my offer when you had the chance. Let me ease your mind that you will bring upon the destruction of your loved ones." Then the scene changed.

He was on top of Mount Tam, with Atlas holding up the sky. He watched as Tartarus himself appeared to the titan. "Give it to me," he said, the void slowly sucking up Atlas' presence. Atlas gladly gave it over to the ancient god, collapsing onto the ground. Tartarus, unlike Atlas, seemed to hold the sky like it was a bookshelf: not too difficult, but still a little draining. He held the sky with one hand and grabbed a weak Atlas with his other.

"Wha-" Atlas said, a confused look on his face as Tartarus sucked up his essence.

"Goodbye, Atlas," he said, chuckling as the titan disappeared into his face. Then he turned to Nico, who was in shock from seeing Atlas being consumed. "This is your doing, demigod," Tartarus said.

Then with a last heave, the pit god let go of the sky, letting it crash the world around him. And that's when Nico di Angelo woke up.


	2. Chapter 2

"Wake up!" a voice yelled at him desperately. "Come on Nico, I need you to get up!"

"I just got here last night," Nico whined tiredly to the person trying to take his precious sleep away.

"Nico!" the voice complained, "Come on!" When Nico didn't reply, the voice added, "This is urgent, please I need you out of bed!"

Nico found out this person was willing to touch him to get him up, for he felt a warm hand rolled him onto the floor.

That was it. Nobody could get away with touching this son of Hades without some punishment. He got to his feet sleepily and did his signature death glare, intending for his waker to be scared out of his mind. But when Nico saw who it was, his glare faltered. "...Percy?"

"We're going to be late! " said Percy. A blush crept onto Nico's face as he realized that it was Percy who had touched him. And, of course, Percy just HAD to notice. Or so he thought.

"Do you have a fever or something?" the seaweed brain asked, concern laced into his voice.

Nico nearly laughed out loud at that. "No, " he replied, making it sound like the most obvious thing in the world.

But it seemed that Percy didn't notice or care about Nico's attitude. Not waiting for Nico to rub all the sleep from his eyes, the son of Poseidon said with great enthusiasm, "Let's go!" He turned and left, leaving Nico to race after him.

By the time Nico caught up with Percy, they were already at the dining pavilion. Why did Percy bring him here? Isn't there something important that he was woken up for? "Let's get some breakfast!" said Percy, piling his plate with every kind of food that was blue. Since the cooks knew Percy was a blue fan, they had made lots of food abnormally blue, just for him. Nico didn't have to guess how Percy got the cooks to do that for him. He saved the world twice already, and if he didn't deserve to have blue food made for him every day, nobody did.

But when Nico realized that he had not woken up for anything important, the son of Hades wasn't going to allow Percy to get away with this. "You woke me up to have breakfast?" he yelled, seriously annoyed with Percy's good intentions.

"Yep," Percy said, adding more blue food to his enormous stack threatening to spill over. Nico was tempted to tell Percy to take an extra two plates with him whenever he ate.

But Nico was too tired to eat much. He didn't put anything on his plate until they reached the fruit section. The only food the son of Hades could force himself to eat was the pomegranates, so he dumped the fruit on his plate. He turned to sit at his table, satisfied with the food he chose to eat. But he was very surprised to find Percy sitting at the Hades table with him, earning him and Percy a few glances.

"...Aren't you supposed to sit at your table?" Nico asked, a little skeptical. He didn't want Percy to get in trouble for trying to do good deeds. Stupid Percy, shouldn't he know any better?

"Nah, they'll live with it," Percy answered, grinning. "It's no fun sitting by myself."

"Oh. Ok." Nico said, not knowing what to say to that. They were getting venomous looks from the campers and the counselors as Percy stayed at Nico's table for more than a minute. Nico wondered whom Percy had referred to when he said "they" will live with it, for the whole camp didn't seem too happy with Percy breaking the rules.

Percy frowned, looking at Nico's nearly empty plate with concern. He sighed. "Nico, the point of getting you out of bed earlier today was so you could eat, not starve."

"I am," Nico said defensively, pointing at the pomegranate seeds. "See? I ate one of those!"

Percy raised his eyes skeptically. "You call that eating? That's nibbling."

Then he smiled mischievously, making Nico regret coming to breakfast. He took his plate, forked out a couple of pancakes from the very tippy-top of the huge stack of food that could feed a giant, and plopped them onto his plate.

"Good thing I came prepared," Percy said.

Nico rolled his eyes. "Just because you brought me pancakes doesn't mean I'm going to eat them."

"Aww man, I should've known, " Percy said playfully with a little sarcasm, pretending to be down. Then his eyes lit up and he announced, "Good thing I had a backup plan!"

People started to watch the growing battle as Percy tried to get Nico to eat. The son of Poseidon tried to sit on him, stare him into eating (Nico found this easy to win, he isn't known for his death glare for anything), comment about how Nico eating would make him the happiest person on the planet ("Clap along if you feel like happiness is the truth!" Percy sang, which would have him earn another roll of the eyes.), tickle the boy with the water from his glass (Nico just shadow-traveled out of the water's reach), and ended up calling a duel.

"If I win," Percy said. "Then you have to eat every last bite of food on your plate. If I lose, you can go scot-free. Deal?"

Nico frowned, not happy with the negotiations. "I don't see the benefits I get from winning."

Percy pouted at him. "Fine. Then one of your chores is added to my list, you choose which one. Deal?"

Nico smirked. That was more like it. "Deal," he said. Holding his sword, he turned to Percy, allowing a hint of amusement to show in his dark eyes. "Now let's do this."

The son of Hades knew he was in for a tough fight when Percy took his shirt off, showing off his perfect figure. Nico felt his heat rise and his heart flutter as he vainly tried not to stare at the way Percy's muscles moved when he stretched, rolling his shoulders. His eyes seemed determined for him to sneakily check out Percy's chest, glancing whenever the son of Poseidon wasn't looking. He could feel the blood rise to his pale face, making his blush stand out like a tomato on a sheet of paper. 'This is not helping,' Nico thought helplessly, for he knew it was vain for him to concentrate with Percy like this.

The younger demigod studied Percy's determined face, getting lost in the pools of green. That was the best feature to Nico, for the son of Poseidon's sea-green eyes made him want to drown in them over and over. His light pink lips were alluring, making Nico want to run up to him and kiss him. And Percy's cute nose practically begged to be nuzzled.

Don't even get the son of Hades started on the hair. The way Percy's raven-black hair looked like he had just rolled out of bed made Nico want to ruffle it continuously.

"You ok?" Percy asked, looking concerned about him for the second time that day. "You look like you're having a fever again."

"I'm fine Percy," Nico answered with exasperation in his voice, the redness in his cheeks stubborn to leave his paper white face. When Percy didn't look convinced, Nico rolled his eyes and added, "You're starting to act like my mother."

"Oh, sorry," Percy said, embarrassed. "I just get protective of my friends."

Nico's head snapped up. Did he think he heard what he thought he heard? Did Percy, the most popular guy in this camp and hero of the world twice just call him his friend?

"Gee, you don't need to look that surprised," Percy said, hurt evident in his voice.

"Sorry," Nico said with a blush, feeling a pang of guilt for making Percy feel bad.

"Don't be." The son of Poseidon went into his fighting stance, sword ready and muscles tensed.

"Ready?" Percy asked.

Nico made a sound between "what" and "yea", staring into Percy's incredibly perfect eyes again. Yep. He was a goner.

He lunged at the teen, Riptide rising in an arch and meeting with Stygian Iron with a clash, pressing towards Nico.

With surprising skill, the son of Hades darted to the side like a slippery snake, just out of Percy's reach. Percy tried to attack the demigod again, trying a different maneuver that usually threw his opponents off. But Percy learned that Nico was not just some Ares kid; he knew how to adapt, for Nico had yet again darted out of the way, unbearably out of the reach of Riptide yet again. The son of Poseidon growled with annoyance, for Nico was so close yet far away. He had the urge to close the distance, so Percy started to hit harder, vision blurry from working so furiously. But he found that he just couldn't get close enough. No matter how hard he tried, Nico just leapt out of the way, attacking from different angles every time

Both began to tire, draining drastically as more time passed, but both refused to back down, locking into an eternal battle. A crowd of people had formed to watch the sparring, for they had been fighting for more than two hours.

"Ready to back down yet, Jackson?" Nico mocked, leaping and slashing at Percy as he tried harder and harder to not pass out. He furiously kept his gaze on Percy's head, not wanting to be distracted by Percy's lean muscles wrapping his arms. Not that his face was making him feel any better. But this son of Hades was not going to let his weakness make him lose.

"Never." Percy retorted, attacking and deflecting every move the teen made. He could feel his bones melting to liquid as he fought the guy, barely keeping himself from toppling over from exhaustion. But would the fact that both of their visions had dark edges from exhaustion get Nico and Percy to call it quits like sensible people? Of course not.

Only when the crowd that had been watching them fight left to get dinner did they finally get somewhere. Nico could no longer leap out of the way, but Percy couldn't attack. So soon enough, they both fell to the ground in exhaustion, finally agreeing that the fight was getting nowhere. Percy fell flat on top of Nico with his arm plopping across Nico's chest; he was too tired to control where he landed. And too tired to push Percy away from him, Nico closed his eyes.

When the campers came back from the campfire, they found both boys fast asleep, Percy's head in Nico's hair and Nico leaning against the boy's chest. A line of drool ran from Percy's mouth onto Nico's skull shirt. It was clear that they had passed out from exhaustion, for their limbs clashed in uncomfortable ways. Yet they both had peaceful looks on their faces, Nico's frown lines and Percy's worried lines gone. The Aphrodite demi-gods wanted to keep the boys like that, so Chiron had to intervene and ordered them to be brought back to their cabins. A good number even sided with the daughters of Aphrodite, for never had the camp seen them look so peaceful. Even Annabeth, Percy's girlfriend, somewhat admitted that she's never seen Percy so utterly relaxed.

Meanwhile, Tartarus watched them from his land, chuckling softly. His two dark red eyes were gleaming. Little did they know that simple things like gossip would end when they found out what he's going to do. Nothing will ever be the same at camp half-blood when he's through with them. With an evil laugh, he turned to the radio, put in a CD, and pressed the play button.


	3. Chapter 3

Nico lay in bed, staring at the ceiling of his cabin. It was half-past midnight, and Nico found he couldn't sleep for the first time in forever. Why? One word: Percy.

The Son of Hades thought that he was over Percy. After his visit to Cupid, he had tried his hardest to not think about how his heart would leap whenever Percy smiled at him, or when Percy had that seaweed brain expression on his face that made Nico want to kiss him. He tried so hard to not go nuts when the son of Poseidon paid attention to him instead of Annabeth, made lame jokes, and laughed.

But now he knew that he was wrong. He still acted like a silly schoolgirl and blushed whenever Percy was even a little close, like sitting next to him. Nico still had the urge to bolt whenever the guy walked up to him. This son of Hades was not over this boy, and he hated himself for it.

'He'll never like you back.' said a voice in his head. 'He likes girls, not skinny teenager boys.'

'But what if he does? What if he does like me?' Nico thought desperately.

'Don't be silly, what would a hero like him see in a boy like you?' the voice in his head scoffed.

The conversation Nico was having in his head stopped as he heard a strange tune echo through the camp.

"Is that... Adele?" Nico asked out loud. He got out of bed and opened his door to look outside.

What he saw terrified the crap out of the son of Hades, which is saying something. Clouds pressed to the magical boundaries of the camp, trying to break through. The dark blue of the sky was too close to the land to be possible, unless...

"No." Nico whimpered as Adele's voice echoed through the camp, the lyrics suddenly making sense.

"Let the Skyfall, when it crumbles. We will stand tall. And face it all together." Adele sang the song becoming louder and louder as someone or something cranked up the volume.

Nico didn't wait any longer. He ran to Half-Blood Hill to look outside the boundaries, passing confused campers that were asking him what's going on. "Later." he replied to all of them, terrified of what he's about to see.

The land was flattened to the bone, with trees collapsed and houses crushed against the weight of the sky. With obstacles out of the way, Nico could see for miles around, including New York, which was now flat, staining the ground grey.

"Oh gods!" someone shrieked, a crowd of people looking at their world that was now as flat as a pancake. Apparently a crowd of people had followed Nico to the boundaries, for he now heard a lot of voices murmuring to one another.

"Nico!" a voice from the crowd said, leaving butterflies in Nico's stomach when he recognized the voice. Percy pushed through the crowd, Riptide drawn out and gleaming in the morning sun. "What's going on?"

Nico blushed a light pink, a little embarrassed at being in the spotlight. But he caught himself and regained his composure, looking out into the crowd.

"The sky has fallen." he announced. "Tartarus took the sky from Atlas and consumed the titan's essence, leaving no one to take the sky when he let it fall."

The crowd gasped at Nico's terrible news. One Hermes kid spoke up, saying, "How do you know?"

Nico looked at the person coolly, replying, "I had a dream about it, like most people."

The boy looked unconvinced. But as he opened his mouth to retort back at Nico, a young girl beat him to it and asked, "What should we do?"

It was Percy who answered that question. He stepped up to stand by Nico. "We should contact Camp Jupiter and see how they're doing. Maybe they can help." Percy said. He turned to glance at the crushed land outside the border. "As for our current problem, we'll have a council meeting about it." After hearing the murmur of agreement in the crowd, the son of Poseidon then left without another word, heading straight for the Athena cabin to find Annabeth.

"He's probably trying to contact his mom." someone muttered before Nico could ask. "Annabeth's got a cell phone."

"Ok." Nico said, uncomfortable with the kid's bluntness.

How did he know what he was going to ask? A son of Hades shouldn't be so readable! Then a terrible thought entered his mind. What if they knew he was gay? What if they knew he had a crush on Percy? His heart started to hammer in his throat.But as Nico sat there, he realized he was being ridiculous. Of course they didn't know! If the camp did, things would be very different for the son of Hades. And not to mention it was reasonable for someone to ask why a person suddenly left. He was just being paranoid.

But who could blame him? Being gay in the 1930's wasn't a picnic. Even though he was very young, Nico did notice guys when he still lived in Italy. Plus, Nico didn't know how to handle crushes. He would stammer and blush whenever he was in the same room as his crush. Plus, it wasn't like he could run to his mother and say, "Omg, Mom, I found this guy who's SO cute and adorable..." That was plain unacceptable.

Yet Nico couldn't help but wonder if his mother would've accepted him as being gay. Sometimes he wanted to break his promise to Hades to never summon his mother and ask. Bianca had known he was gay. She had merely waved her hand away when Nico confessed and said, "Nico, I don't care about that. Love is love, no matter who it's for." He missed her too much.

Before he could get too depressed, Nico shook his head, clearing his thoughts, for they were getting out of control. Noticing that the campers were still gathered around waiting for anything else he had to say, he said. "Well, I guess we should all get back to normal duties." The crowd gathered at the border nodded and left, heading towards the dining pavilion to eat breakfast.

Nico sighed and looked outside the borders into the flattened world, knowing that nothing was ever going to be the same ever again. How in Hades were they going to fix this?


	4. Chapter 4

Nico walked over to his cabin, his sword dangling from his hip. He could feel the bags under his eyes, giving him a nasty headache. Without at least taking off his clothes, the son of Hades kicked off his shoes and climbed under the covers. He closed his eyes, sighing as the last month's events played in his head.

...

The son of Hades walked down the dark hallways of the underground palace, the place reminding him eerily of a black version of Olympus. Nico stopped walking when he heard angry voices echoing from the master bedroom.

"Hades, I have had enough of this! I am sick and tired of that brat being here 24-7!" Persephone yelled, her arms in the air with anger. She paced the floor with irritation, her eyes burning brightly.

Hades sighed, "Dear, I cannot simply turn him away."

"Why? You never let any of your other children live here. Heck, I never let any of them stick around in the underworld for more than five minutes. It was hello and then goodbye!" Persephone sniffed. Nico could picture her arms folded across her chest, running around dramatically.

"He needs protection, my darling, he is only sixteen and is facing more than any other of my children have dealt with throughout their whole lives," Hades answered. Nico felt his heart leap at his father's words. Maybe Hades really does care for him!

"And I'm Zeus. You've become attached to him, haven't you?" Nico winced, as he could feel the glare Persephone was giving Hades from outside the door.

"No, my dear, you very well know that I wish his sister was alive in his place." Hades stated, his voice sounding bored. "His sister Bianca could've done more than him in a lifetime," the son of Hades felt his heart get crushed by his father's words. He couldn't blame him though.

''You've always been a waste of space." Nico's inner voice crooned at him.

'Shut up.' Nico thought furiously at himself. He leaned heavily against the door, trying to pick up more of the conversation.

"Well then let him prove himself!" His wife said with an urgent tone. "Send him on a quest!"

Hades stopped at that thought. Nico imagined his father stroking his chin, thinking hard. "And my dear, do you have one in mind?"

Picturing the smirk playing on Persephone's lips, she replied, "Oh yes, I have the perfect one."

...

A few minutes later Hades called Nico from his room. Still breathing heavily from running back to his quarters, Nico obliged and went to stand in front of his father, hand instinctively on his sword handle. "You called for me, father?"

Hades regarded him coolly. "I did. I summoned you here to give you a quest."

Nico didn't answer, wanting his father to interpret that as a surprise. He slightly lifts his eyebrows to add to the look. But he couldn't suppress a shiver as he looked at Hades, for he knew he'd be dead if he was caught eavesdropping on him.

Falling for Nico's act, Hades looked a bit smug, for getting a reaction out of Nico wasn't something easy to do. "Yes boy, a quest. Your step-mother and I decided it was time you stopped hiding here and did something."

Nico's face flushed at that. He steered the topic away from his humiliation. "And what would this quest be?"

Hades told him the quest, causing Nico to swear under his breath. He wasn't going to like this quest one bit.

"And Nico?" Hades said as Nico turned to leave.

Nico reluctantly turned to face his father, eyebrows raised.

"Don't ever come to the underworld again. Not until you've died." Hades told his son.

Turning furiously from his father, Nico strode to the door, went through the crack, and vanished. He had lost his only safe haven from camp, and it was all Persephone's fault.

...

Nico woke abruptly, sweat gleaming in the green light and skin hot to the touch. He looked at his fireplace that burns green flames with a sigh. The greenness was going to make him sick.

A knock on his door jerked him from his thoughts. "Nico?" the voice asked. "Are you there?"

Realizing it was Percy, Nico felt a slight blush appear on his cheeks, making him look like he was recently in cold air. He calmed himself down as fast as he could, thinking about his quest from the previous month to get him to stop acting like a sixth grader. But there was still a slight tinge of pink on his face present as Percy, who clearly got sick of standing there, opened the door and walked in.

The older demigod scanned the room in front of him, his sea-green eyes meeting his raven black ones when Percy found Nico. But instead of telling Nico why he was there he became a little pink, matching the same flush on Nico's pale skin.

"What?" Nico asked, getting annoyed with the older demigod. He didn't want to be awakened for another stupid reason like eating food again. This son of Hades wouldn't budge out of bed until he was told why.

"Um...you're uh, kinda, uh, only wearing underwear," Percy said, his face getting redder as he forced the sentence out of his mouth.

"...Oh!" Nico said, matching the tomato red Percy's skin color as he looked down on himself. He noticed the covers thrown off his bed and reached for it to pull onto his lower self, leaving only his chest and head bare.

"Well, uh, I'll wait outside till you're dressed." Percy stammered before practically running to the door.

Nico watched Percy with utter confusion as the son of Poseidon left, not understanding why he was suddenly being so bashful. Percy was never bashful. Could his appearance have disgusted him that much to cause him blush with embarrassment so hard? After all, it wasn't like Percy hadn't seen guys without pants on. If he hadn't, then how did he get changed for gym? Nico shook his head. 'I'm clearly over thinking this.' he thought before getting out of bed and changing into another skull shirt that lay crumpled on the floor.

Once he was dressed, Nico opened the door, revealing a waiting Percy Jackson with his hands in his pockets.

"C'mon, we have a council meeting to attend." Percy said before striding off, Nico following closely behind.

As they entered the main house, they were greeted by Chiron. His solemn eyes seemed to look even more tired, his shoulders slumped forward.

"Hey Chiron." Percy greeted. "How are things?"

Chiron sighed, running a hand through his hair. "I'm not exactly positive. Since you two took so long, they decided to start without you."

"What?" Percy exclaimed with anger, pretty much saying what Nico was screaming in his head. "They can't!"

"I'm sorry Percy, I tried to stop them from doing so, but Dionysis voted them to." Chiron said. Suddenly, he took Percy's shoulder into his grip, looking straight through Percy's eyes. "Promise me to be rational with them, Percy. Keep in mind they all just lost many of their friends and family."

A different emotion passed into the sea-green eyes: anger. He could see the steel as Percy nodded his head to let Chiron know he understood, for Percy understood what they were going through. It wasn't fair what Tartarus did. Then without looking at anyone else, Percy walked into the meeting room, Nico trailing behind him. But as they entered the room, what they had expected wasn't a fight.

**AN:**

**If you want to post this story on Ao3 pm me. Please review. Updates are going to be faster. If you wanna beta pm me. **


	5. Chapter 5

Nico and Percy watched food, drinks, and other nasty items get chucked across the table with dismay. Fists connected with jaws, and teeth with skin. People screamed and yelled at one another. Thunder boomed in the air constantly from the insults thrown carelessly about. Amid the chaos, Nico could see who was sitting right in the middle of it: Clarissa. Knocking down demi-god after demi-god with her brutal fists, she began to draw her sword from her belt. Percy seemed to have recovered from the shock. He pushed his way through the mass of angry campers, leaped onto the table, and screamed, "STOP!" Everyone turned to look at the son of Poseidon, their fists lowering to their sides. But the looks they were giving one another showed that many of them weren't done. "WHAT IN THE NAME OF THE GODS DO YOU THINK YOU'RE DOING?" Percy said. Many suddenly had an urge to look at their feet, studying each of their toes intensely. Clarisse pushed aside many of the campers to get up to the front. She crossed her arms across her chest and said, "What do you think we're doing? We're obtaining our honor!" Nico glared at Clarisse. "And how in the name of Hades does fighting our own campers 'obtain honor?' " A dangerous look flickered in her eyes, evil flames seeming to burn straight into Nico's soul. "Watch it, punk. You don't know anything about honor. You've always run and hide, nothing more." Nico rolled his eyes, getting irritated with her. He didn't have time for this. "Whatever." Clearly, that was not the thing to say, for she yelled at him, "You ran because you're a fag, didn't you, punk?" Shadows in the corner of the room grew larger, looming over the council threatenly. The ground started to shake as skeletal warriors tried to push their way out of the ground. People looked at Nico nervously as he deepened his glare, officially moving it another level up. "What did you just say?" Nico said, the coldness in his voice making a few of the campers shiver. "Guys," Percy warned, hand gripping his sword at his side. Clarisse moved to put her face an inch from Nico's. "You know what I said, punk." "Guys," Percy tried again. Nico moved in closer, the shadows getting thicker and skeletal hands popping up from the ground. "Oh yeah? What makes you think that?" Piper spoke up, putting her charm into her words. "Nico, Clarisse, back away from each other. Let's all just calm down and-" Clarisse turned to whisper something in Nico's ear, voice barely audible. "You just can't stop drooling over a certain son of Poseidon, can't you, Nico?" Piper stopped trying to charmspeak the two as Nico snapped, for he wanted nothing more than to hurt a certain daughter of Ares. He punched her in the face with all his might, giving her a slight bruise on her cheek. His hands reached out to grab and claw at any skin it made contact with, rage consuming him. Happy to have provoked the son of Hades, Clarisse delivered a blow to back to his face, leaving a larger bruise on his cheek than what Nico gave her. Furious, he went harder and harder, receiving a worse blow in return. But sadly the fight didn't last more than seconds. Nico felt himself get pushed into a wall by a different body. He struggled to get out of the person's arms, but found it was a death trap. He glared at a smirking Clarisse, who wiped her mouth with her hand. "Thanks for confirming my suspicions, fruitcake," Clarisse mocked, going over to her place at the table. Nico sent another one of his signature death glares at her, for he was beyond mad. "Nico, its ok," said the horribly too familiar voice that was pinning Nico to the wall to prevent the son of Hades from attacking Clarisse. Nico felt heat rise in his face as he realized who had their body pressed on his to keep him still: the one and only Perseus Freaking Jackson. Being the jerk she was, Clarisse flashed a knowing smile at the skittle red son of Hades, making him want to die on the spot. Why him? Just why? "Get off me," Nico snapped at Percy, embarrassed so much that he was willing to dig a hole and never return. Too bad a certain goddess of springtime banished him from it till he died. "Not till you calm down." Percy replied stubbornly. "That death glares you're giving Clarisse isn't exactly reassuring me that you won't fight her if I let you go." Frustrated, Nico yelled, "Oh for crying out loud, just let me go!" He glared at the son of Poseidon, giving him the evil eye. "Nope." Percy said, popping the 'p'. Nico's face became even redder as he realized he was going to be stuck in this position for a while. His heart was beating so fast Nico was surprised that his heart didn't give out then and there. Electric pulses sparked at the places where his body met Percy's, making it hard for the son of Hades to concentrate on anything but those spots. Nico inwardly laughed at his stupidity. If he thought looking at Percy was hard, then this was worse. Ten times worse. Nico tried again. "Will you let me go please?"He asked, attempting to keep his voice calm. Percy looked at Nico with slight smirk on his face. "Nice try, but no." Suddenly having an idea, Nico tried to catch Jason's eyes, trying to show him that he was about to explode. Since Jason was the only one who knew (or so he thought), Nico thought that he might understand and help him get out of this damn situation. Apparently Jason did. When Nico finally caught the son of Jupiter's eyes, he sent a silent message pleading ,"Get me the heck out of this!" Jason immediately got up and walked over to Percy. "Hey Percy? I think Nico's gotten over it. Maybe you should, uh, let go?" Jason said. Nico glared at Jason, showing him that the son of Jupiter wasn't being assertive enough. Percy looked down at Nico's red form. "I don't know Jason, he still looks like he's going to murder someone." Nico wanted to scream at him, "Yep, and guess what?" That person happens to be you!' But Nico kept silent, willing for Jason to get him out of this. "Well... couldn't you just sit next to him so that he doesn't attack Clarisse? He doesn't need to be pinned to the wall." Jason pointed out. But being the 'smart one' Percy was, he still hesitated. "He's really fast, Jason." Then he finally noticed Nico's red face. "Does Nico have a fever or something?" Nico rolled his eyes. 'Seaweed brain strikes again.' Nico gritted his teeth and breathed in and out to cool himself down. "For your information, 'Nico' happens to be right here and no, Percy, I do not have a fever!" He turned to glare at him. "Now are you going to let me go or what?" Annabeth walked up behind Percy and put a hand on his shoulder. "Percy, let go of him. We need to finish this council meeting. The more we stand here, the longer it takes for this issue to be resolved." She sent a warning look at Nico, eyes narrowing at the tomato-colored son of Hades. Percy sighed. "You're right Annabeth." He let go of Nico, who jumped out of Percy's grasp as quickly as he could and stood a good distance away. "Now, let's get this council meeting started." 'Finally!' Nico wanted to yell, thankful to get away from the annoying kelphead. But before Nico could go to his usual spot, Percy put a hand on his shoulder and said. "Oh no you don't. You're sitting with me, Nico." Glaring at him, Nico replied, "Fine," and went to sit on Percy's right side, Annabeth sitting on his left. As he sat down, he sighed, taking out his Hades mythomagic figure to occupy him. The council meeting went forever. There were many problems that needed to be addressed and people just couldn't decide what to do about it. "We should focus on getting to Mount Tamalpais! We need to lift the sky again!" one person would shout. "We need to send out rescue parties to save the mortals!" Another would argue. "But what about Camp Jupiter? We need to find a way to get to them!" a few people would say. Yet as the debate went on, the topic of lifting the sky was the most commonly touched on, for with the land and sky not available for transportation, there was no way to travel. Or so they thought. It was Percy who got an idea. "Hey Nico." he asked. "Can you still shadow travel?" Nico looked at the table thoughtfully. "Maybe." he answered. "I'd have to teleport from underground places, but otherwise, it would work. Yet it could be pretty dangerous." "Well there you go!" Percy said. "We got a ticket to Mount Tamalpais right here!" He put a hand on Nico's shoulder to prove his point. "Get your hand off of me!" Nico snapped, jerking his shoulder away from Percy's grip. "Sorry." Percy muttered. "I'm just trying to help." Nico felt guilty after that. But he pushed it away as fast as he could, trying to get his head back into the game. Yet it was kinda hard, seeing as Annabeth took Percy's hand and squeezed it gently to soothe his anxiety. And being the demi-gods they were, people weren't satisfied with the idea of relying solely on one person to get them anywhere, so the argument went on. Then it was Piper's turn for brilliant ideas. She said, "Wait, what about the Labyrinth." "It was destroyed." said Connor Stoll of the Hermes cabin. "No it isn't. One of the giants reformed it." Jason answered him. "Wait, what?!" people exclaimed. "Why didn't you say before. "Well the giant kinda did tell us while we were trying to not get killed, so..." Piper said. "Oh ok." they murmured. But it was obvious they weren't happy with that answer, for neighbor turned to neighbor to whisper. "So are we going to give it a try?" asked the representative of the Apollo cabin, trying to move along the discussion. "I don't know. I guess?" Jason replied. "Well let's bring it to a vote then." Annabeth said, looking at Chiron. "All in favor?" Chiron's voice rang out. The majority of the council raised their hands in favor. "It is decided then." Chiron said. "Great! So who's gonna go?" Piper asked. "Wait hold on a minute!" Someone screamed. "We didn't decide if we're gonna lift the sky first or save the mortals!" So with that thought in mind, it went on. After two hours of countless squabbling and getting off topic, the council finally got to a conclusion: The first priority would be that there is going to be a quest to go to Mount Tamalpais. But it was a close vote, for there were many campers grumbling in their seats as the council meeting continued. "But how do we know that Mount Tamalpais isn't squashed like everywhere else?" Katie Gardener asked from the Demeter cabin. "It won't be," Annabeth replied. "As soon as we get there, someone will take the weight of the sky to keep it at bay." Then Jason asked the question we were all thinking about. " But who will hold the weight of the sky? With Atlas gone, who's going to take his place?" Silence. Dead silence was all that could be heard. "We'll let the gods decide that," Piper piped up. "For now, we need to decide who's going to go." Percy immediately got up on his feet. "I'll go." Annabeth stood with him, looking at Percy as she said. "I'll go too." She took his hand again and squeezed it, looking at him with a glossy smile. Nico wanted to puke. "I'm not missing out on this one." Clarisse stood from her chair and towered over them. "Wait!" Percy exclaimed. He looked down at a certain son of Hades that was looking at everything gloomily, looking everywhere but him and Annabeth. "What about Nico?" Nico snapped his head up at Percy, surprise flickering on his face. "What about me?" "You should come, Nico. We could really use your abilities." Percy said. "Um... ok? I guess I'll come then," Nico replied, looking baffled. He slowly got onto his feet to show he was volunteering, Annabeth looking disapprovingly at him. "Wait hold on a sec!" Clarisse yelled. "There can only be three, not four! Everyone knows that!" She planted a meaty fist on the table. "That kids not going if I can help it, the quest needs a daughter of Ares. Not a bone bag son of Hades." Rachel looked at her with her eyebrow raised. "Percy had a point, Clarissa. Nico's powers are going to be very handy when traveling to that mountain. He'll provide a quick escape route if caught in any nasty situations. Plus, one of the companions needs to be a mortal that can see through the mist." Silence met those words. Clarissa grumbled and sat back down with her arms crossed, defeated. "Well it's obvious who's going to guide them." Katie Gardener of the Demeter cabin spoke up. "Rachel should go." It seemed like it was then that the kelp head realized the person he always had with him on his quests couldn't come. Percy looked at Annabeth. "Annabeth..." "I know Percy, I understand." Annabeth whispered as she sat down. "I'm sorry." Percy said to her, looking guilty. "Its OK, Percy, really." Annabeth braved a smile, trying to reassure him that it was ok. But she showed her true feelings toward the matter when she gave a quick evil eye towards Nico while Percy wasn't looking. But Nico didn't see the glare, for he was too busy deciding whether to squeal with excitement at going on a quest with Percy and Annabeth or running away as fast as he could. "Alright then, it's settled. Percy and Nico will be going on this quest with Rachel leading them." Piper said. The council meeting briefly touched on the topic of reaching out to Camp Jupiter (They had called them and found that they were ok. The camps decided that Camp Half-Blood would lift up the sky and Camp Jupiter would save as many mortals as they could). And finally, after five exhausting hours of talking, the council meeting ended. When she got up, Annabeth walked up to Percy determinedly, grabbed his hair, and kissed him right on the mouth, glancing at Nico's pale face with satisfaction. "Wow, Annabeth, it's alright, I'm not leaving yet!" Percy chuckled. Nico felt a pang of sadness at his carefree laugh. He wanted to be the one that made Percy laugh, not her. "I know, seaweed brain." Annabeth muttered. "I'm just going to miss you." Smiling at her, he wrapped his arms around her and buried his face in her blonde hair. "I know, Annabeth, me too." People awed at that. Nico felt like he was getting stabbed over and over again. But he kept his expression blank, knowing that a certain daughter of Ares was watching him. Nico couldn't wait to get going on the quest, for he wouldn't have to deal with her. Or Annabeth. He felt some of the pain leave with that thought. Percy turned to a half-asleep Nico. "Ready for the Oracle?" "... Yeah ..." Nico replied sleepily, yawning and stretching out his arms, rubbing his eyes. The younger demi-god felt tired, for five hours of blabbing non stop was very draining for Nico. He noticed Percy's eyes trained on him for a longer period than normal. "Percy? HELLO?" Nico waved an arm in front of the older boy's face. "What?" Percy jumped out of his trance. "Let's go." Nico said, walking to the back room of the house where Rachel waited. But as he entered the room, he couldn't help but realize that Percy had been ever-so-slightly smiling at him.


End file.
